The pike was quickly followed by a number of other shafted weapons, all of which owed their origin to it, and all for the use of the foot soldier. The linstock was intended for the artilleryman. It consisted of a pike with the addition of lateral branches on each side of the head, sometimes terminating in bird’s or serpent’s heads. These latter were intended
FIG. 12. PARTIZANS.
Edward IV; C. 1500., Henry VIII; German, c. x61o; James 1.
to hold the match for firing cannon. Previously the cannoneer had had to discard his pike in order to apply the match to the touch-hole, and was frequently slain in the process. The linstock ensured that he remained armed.
The partizan was originally something like a pike with lateral projections at the base of the blade. The blade later became longer, flatter and more ornamental, and often gilt and covered with elaborate engraving. As a mediaeval weapon it had a comparatively short practical life. After the reign of Henry VIII its use seems to have been confined to ceremonial occasions and for the arming of bodyguards.
The spontoon had a flat blade like the partizan, but it did not have the projections at the base. It had a much shorter staff than the pike, and was intended for use in closer combat,
FIG- 13. SPONTOONS.
Tower of London.
The halbert was more akin to the bill than the pike, and it has been suggested that its name is derived from the German Halb-Barthe, meaning ‘half battle-axe’. In form it was something like a pike with an axe-head mounted immediately below the pike blade; so that it could be used either for cutting or thrusting.
Swords were, of course, used at Hastings. It would be difficult to cite any pre-twentieth_century battle in which they were not carried into action. They are, by tradition, the most honourable weapon of all. the very symbol of the profession of arms.
Saxon swords were of two kinds, both being of iron; about three feet in length, and straight. One of these was double-edged and very sharp. It had no guard, not even a simple crosspiece. The other was very similar, but it had a cross-piece as a
FIG. 14. HALBERTS.
Henry VII; Henry V111; Edward V1-, Mary.
guard, and a pommel which was sometimes foliated. The hilts of these swords were generally of wood covered with leather, horn or bone. The sword hilts of some of the greater or wealthier nobles, however, were frequently covered with plates of gold or silver.
The Norm in swords can be seen on the early Royal and baronial seals, and a very similar type was used throughout the mediaeval period. The blade was long and tapering, double-edged, with a simple cross-piece guard to the hilt, either straight or curving towards the blade; the pommels being round or of various ornamental shapes. In the latter half of the fifteenth century the blades tapered to a very fine point, and the upper part was often gilt and engraved. These mediaeval swords were intended for either cutting or thrusting. The many carved effigies which remain in churches throughout the country afford abundant examples of the swords which were in fashion at different periods.
FIG. 15. SWORDS.
Henry V; Edward VI; Henry VII; 1495, engraved by
Albrecht Mirer; Henry VIII.
Saxon and Norman sword scabbards were generally of wood covered with leather, sometimes with bronze mounts. Later, scabbards of metal and cuirbouilli (boiled leather) made their appearance. From about the thirteenth century the mounts and chapel, or metal tips to the scabbard, were ornamental in shape and often heavily engraved.
FIG. 16. SWORD-BELTS.
Top row: A Septvans, Chartham Church, Kent; Brian Lord Fitzalan of Bedale, from Bedale Church, Oxford; Brass of Sir John de St. Quentin, Bransburton Church, Yorkshire. fiddle row: Sir Walter Arden, Aston Church, Warwickshire; Detail of Belt in previous illustration; Brass of a Knight in Laughton Church, Lincolnshire. Bottom row: Mode of fastening Sword-belt, fifteenth century, from• Viollet-le-Duc; Brass of John Cray at Chinnor, Oxfordshire. Ann. 1390. Sword-belt, Queen Elizabeth.
FIG- 17- SWORDS.
Top row: Edward IV-, Henry VI; Henry VII; Henry VII; Henry VIII; Queen Elizabeth. Middle row: Queen Elizabeth; Queen Elizabeth; Queen Elizabeth; Queen Elizabeth; Henry VIII. Bottom row-. Queen Elizabeth; Henry VIII; Henry VIII; Henry VIII-, Queen Elizabeth-, Sword of Wolfgang Wilhelm, Count Palatine of the Rhine, 1614-
The bow was well known, of course, to the Saxons, but it was used by them far more for hunting than for war. It was the Normans who showed on an English battlefield what a formidable weapon it could be. Nevertheless, even for the Normans the bow was very much of an auxiliary weapon, and it is surprising what a small part it played in warfare for two and a half centuries after the battle of Hastings.
The bows of the eleventh century Thirteenth century;
were short, stretching only from head Fourteenth century.
to knee, and they had nothing like the power of the later bows which were to make the English archers so famous. It was Edward III who raised a disciplined force of archers, probably owing to a shortage of heavy horses for men-at-arms, and thereby revived infantry as a factor on the battlefield. The shooting power of these new troops was demonstrated to an astonished Continent at the battle of Crecy in 1346.
The English archers were armed
with a bow measuring six feet or more,
and made chiefly of yew, but sometimes
of ash, elm or witch-hazel. The bow-
string was of hemp, flax or silk. The
standard arrow, the ‘cloth-yard shaft’,
was made of ash, oak, birch or one or
two other woods. The point was of
burnished steel, and it was winged
with feathers from the grey goose; or sometimes the peacock,
the swan or other birds. The bow was generally carried in a case to protect it from the weather and to stop it from warping.
That bows and arrows were adequate both in quality and numbers’was always of concern in mediaeval times. In 1405, for instance, it was found that faulty heads had been made for arrows and quarrels. As a result a statute was promulgated directing that, ‘All the Heads for Arrows and Quarrels after this Time to be made, shall be well boiled or brased, and
FIG. 20. CRAPES.
Henry VIII, Dagger Sheath; Henry VIII, Sword Sheath;
1321 Sword Sheath from effigy in Hereford Cathedral,
hardened at the Points with Steel’ ; and also that, ‘E very Arrow head and Quarrel be Marked with the Mark of him that made the same’. During the latter part of the fifteenth century there was apparently a constant shortage of bowstaves. In 1472 it was decreed that any merchant ship coming from a foreign city, town or country, which had at any time sent bowstaves into England, was to bring four bowstaves with every ton of merchandise. In 1483 there was some trouble with the Lombards, who had been guilty, apparently, of supplying very poor bowstaves, and of profiteering in them as well. They were cnsequently required to include ten good bowstaves free of charge with every butt of wine imported into England.
It was a long time before hand firearms replaced the long bow in England. In the hands of the English archers the latter was a far more accurate weapon than the early and primitive firearm; and it excelled it, too, both in range and rate of discharge. It was not till the sixteenth century was well advanced that the bow was finally superseded; and this was due more to the shortage of trained archers than to superiority in the firearms of the day. It took practice from youth up to train an archer, and in the hey-day of archery it was practised on every village green. But the spread of firearms and their use for sport inevitably resulted in a growing dearth of young men who could draw the long bow. Henry
VIII did his best to keep up.
the standard of archers. In Left: Steel Sheath, Henry VIII. a statute of i Sog he forbade Right: Copper Sheath, Elizabeth I.
the use of gun or crossbow except under special licence from the King; and in a further statute of 15 11 he required every man under the age of forty to provide himself with bow and arrows and to practise shooting with the long bow.
At the battle of Flodden the bow was still the principal missile weapon of the infantry, but the use of firearms was already increasing rapidly. In 1537 Henry VIII recognized the inevitable, and granted a patent to the overseers of the Guild of Saint George (now the Honourable Artillery Company) by which they and their successors were authorized to establish a perpetual fraternity or guild of artillery and ‘to exercise themselves in shooting with the long-bow, crossbow, and hand-guns’.
